AVSH 10

Chapter 10

 Shh!

Da-hee, who had quickly withdrawn her hand, asked with an uncharacteristically timid hesitation.

“It’ll only take a moment—couldn’t you please?”

At that, Geon-woo tilted his head slightly, and his eyes shifted in a peculiar way.

“That kind of approach—how should I put it. Isn’t it a bit old-fashioned?”

“Pardon? What do you mean…….”

“Well, trends do come back around, so it’s fresh in its own way.”

“What exactly are you talking about?”

“You’re curious about my number right now, aren’t you?”

“Pardon? N-no, no!”

Bang―

The chair she’d been sitting on toppled backward. On top of that, Da-hee’s startled cry as she shot to her feet was so loud that not only Geon-woo but passersby all turned to look.

Flustered by all those stares, Da-hee covered her brightly flushed face and bowed her head deeply.

“What is it? If it’s not that you want my number, then why ask for my phone?”

“The ap…… point…….”

Her mumbling was too quiet to hear, so Geon-woo, hands in his coat pockets, bent his upper body down.

“What did you say? I can’t hear you well.”

“I said I need to search for the location of my appointment……!”

The moment she raised her head with a red face, Da-hee found Geon-woo level with her gaze and flinched in surprise.

His forehead was close enough to touch the brim of the hat he’d put on her—too close, far too close.

Gazing intently at Da-hee, frozen stiff as ice, Geon-woo asked again.

“So what you’re saying is, you wanted to search for the location of the appointment you mentioned earlier?”

Da-hee, who had hastily taken a step back, nodded slightly.

“Actually, this is my first time in this neighborhood. I’m sure I set the meeting place somewhere nearby, but I can’t remember exactly where.”

“Your phone?”

“I don’t have one. It broke when I fell into the water. So I brought this instead, but it ended up like this when I fell earlier.”

Da-hee pulled out the tablet PC with its cracked, unresponsive screen and made a troubled expression.

The moment he heard she was carrying this large tablet PC instead of a phone, the image of the woman before him falling from the bridge surfaced in Geon-woo’s mind.

If he hadn’t saved her before the rescue workers arrived, this woman might have died.

Her phone had probably broken then, and it seemed she hadn’t had the presence of mind to get a new one activated in the meantime.

Looking at the cracked tablet PC as if finding it a pity, Geon-woo asked.

“Where is the appointment?”

“Blue Moon. A cafe near here.”

Having heard Da-hee’s answer, Geon-woo nodded slowly, then without a word went back into the convenience store.

“What’s going on?”

As Da-hee blinked in confusion at Geon-woo’s utterly unpredictable behavior, he came back out of the convenience store. She wondered what he’d bought this time, but his hands were empty.

Geon-woo set the chair Da-hee had knocked over back upright and dusted off his hands.

“Let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“I’ll walk you. To your appointment.”

“……Pardon? Why?”

“Because I know the way. Let’s go.”

“??”

A soft smile from Geon-woo was reflected in Da-hee’s wide eyes. With his hands in his pockets, he strode ahead.

“Aren’t you coming? Your appointment time is almost here.”

“Ah, I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Scratching her cheek, Da-hee hurried after Geon-woo.

Glancing back at Da-hee following behind, Geon-woo slowed his pace and shortened his stride to walk side by side with her. Da-hee’s expression was somehow dazed, as if lost in thought, and she didn’t even notice he was looking at her.

Unable to stand it any longer, Geon-woo stopped in place. Da-hee, who had walked a step or two ahead, belatedly halted and turned around. Her gaze, which had been glancing around as if wondering if they’d already arrived at the appointment location, landed on Geon-woo.

“Why did you stop?”

“I wish it were a lie.”

“What is?”

“That you have an appointment at the cafe.”

“It’s not a lie, really!”

At Da-hee’s flustered reaction, Geon-woo crossed his arms and asked in a low voice.

“Then who is it that you’re meeting there?”

“Why are you asking that?”

“Because I think you’ll need my help. Answer honestly and I’ll help—otherwise, never mind.”

“Excuse me, what are you talking about…….”

Swallowing the words “How can you be so oblivious―” inwardly, Geon-woo shook his head.

Ten meters ahead, just around the corner, was Cafe Blue Moon. Geon-woo, whose instincts were sharp, had thought something was off from the moment they approached the cafe.

The vans lined up along the shoulder where there should have been nothing, the people bustling about laden with equipment—they looked exactly like press reporters.

What was suspicious was how carefully they moved, keeping an eye on their surroundings.

“By any chance, are you planning to hold a press conference at the cafe?”

“Pardon? No? The person I’m meeting is my former agency manager.”

“Hmm. Did I misread the situation?”

If so, were those people lying in wait to cover not Do Da-hee but him?

Since outsiders were being blocked at the entrance of the wealthy neighborhood’s alley, making it impossible for reporters to enter, it was certainly possible they were press waiting nearby.

Either way, reporters were unwelcome. If a photo of Jang Geon-woo and Do Da-hee together were taken and reported, the repercussions would be even more uncontrollable than now.

But if Geon-woo’s instincts were right, those people had been glancing toward where he was—precisely, toward Do Da-hee—for a while now. With expressions of uncertainty.

Sensing this wouldn’t do, Geon-woo pulled Da-hee’s arm close and lowered his voice.

“Three men across the street on the left, one woman next to them, two inside the black van on the shoulder, two men with cameras at the corner entrance.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you know better than I do what I’m talking about? It seems those people are after you, not me.”

“What on earth……!”

“Still don’t get it? You’ve fallen into a trap.”

Only after hearing those words did Da-hee’s eyes go wide as she grasped the situation.

“A trap, you mean…… there are reporters spread all around here?”

“It would seem so.”

No way, Han Joon-sang. Did you leak to the reporters that you were meeting me?

It was bad enough that he’d immediately said OK to meeting, but she never imagined he’d set a trap like this and wait.

“I was too careless.”

Reading Geon-woo’s expression, which seemed to say she’d only just realized it, Da-hee let out a deep sigh.

“What should we do?”

“Why are you asking me that?”

“You said you’d help if I told you honestly who I was meeting.”

“Please help me, I’m begging you.”

Geon-woo’s eyes narrowed coldly as he looked at Da-hee with her anxious gaze.

1:45 PM.

With less than a quarter hour until the appointment time, Han Joon-sang, who had been nervously waiting for Da-hee, stood up from his seat upon seeing the steadily growing number of press personnel.

“Hey, Reporter Kang! What’s going on with all that outside!”

“Well, CEO. Everyone’s desperate to land a scoop, so. It seems they found out that you and Do Da-hee are meeting here today.”

“Does that make sense? Did you blab, Reporter Kang?”

“No. I don’t know how it leaked either…… I warned them to keep their distance, but they’re holding their ground like that.”

“I told you to come quietly, just you. If you go around openly carrying cameras and Do Da-hee sees, do you think she’ll come in here?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll clear them out right away.”

Reporter Kang hurried off to deal with the reporters from other outlets loitering outside.

Displeased with the situation, Han Joon-sang called Da-hee with an anxious face.

But Da-hee’s phone was consistently off, and there was no reply to his messages either.

“Damn it, has she already caught on and bolted?”

That was when it happened.

“Isn’t that Do Da-hee over there?”

“What? Where?”

The area outside the cafe, which had been murmuring, suddenly grew noisy. Seeing the uninvited crowd of reporters hastily moving somewhere, Han Joon-sang couldn’t hold back and spat out a curse.

At that moment, Da-hee was gripping the hem of Geon-woo’s coat tightly with a visibly tense expression.

With reporters swarming around the cafe just as Geon-woo had said, walking straight to meet Han Joon-sang would be like walking unarmed into a tiger’s den.

So the only person she could trust and rely on right now was this man before her.

“Jang Geon-woo, please.”

Seeing her hand gripping his coat trembling, Geon-woo’s gaze sharpened. Having let out a short sigh, he subtly surveyed their surroundings.

Da-hee hadn’t noticed yet, but the eyes directed at the two of them were increasing one by one. Even the man across the street was slowly approaching this way with an uncertain expression.

If he unleashed the skills he’d honed on battlefields, he could easily take on a dozen or so men in hand-to-hand combat. But doing that in the middle of downtown Seoul would cause an uproar.

“My preference is to charge rather than run, but right now I have no choice.”

Just as Da-hee was about to ask what he meant, Geon-woo naturally wrapped his arm around her shoulder and spoke quietly.

“From now on, move quickly wherever I move. Don’t ever look back.”

The moment Da-hee nodded, Geon-woo led her into the commercial building right in front of them.

Most of the shops on the first floor of the rather old commercial building were empty or closed. Having quickly scanned the interior, Geon-woo immediately led Da-hee into the emergency stairwell.

Just before he closed the door silently, he saw the crowd of reporters chasing after them.

“It seems we’ve been spotted. That you’re Do Da-hee.”

“! Don’t tell me—you knew who I was from the start?”

“Yes.”

“If you knew, why did you pretend not to?”

“I never pretended not to.”

“Didn’t you see me as a quick delivery worker?”

“Did I?”

“Then why earlier……-”

“Shh!”

At Geon-woo’s single word, Da-hee flinched and held her breath. Geon-woo calmly checked above and below the stairs. Then, without hesitation, he grabbed her hand and pulled her along.